Bahrain joins UAE in establishing diplomatic ties with Israel

Bahrain said it will become the second Gulf nation to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, joining the United Arab Emirates in normalizing ties with the Jewish state and reshaping politics in the Middle East.

“This is a historic breakthrough to further peace in the Middle East,” according to a joint statement on Friday between the US, Bahrain and Israel. “Opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East.”

President Donald Trump praised the move by Bahrain, coming days before he was already scheduled to host leaders from Israel and the UAE in Washington for a signing ceremony at the White House. He said the nations’ leaders had shown “vision and courage” by reaching the accord and confirmed that Bahrain’s foreign minister would join the Sept. 15 event.

Another HISTORIC breakthrough today! Our two GREAT friends Israel and the Kingdom of Bahrain agree to a Peace Deal – the second Arab country to make peace with Israel in 30 days!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2020

The move will bolster Trump’s claims ahead of the November election to be helping bring peace to the Middle East and seeing success in efforts to extract US forces from the region. It will also come as a welcome development for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose support domestically has taken a hit over corruption charges and his response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Yet the succession of events will be seen with alarm by officials in Iran and the Palestinian territories. Palestinian officials quickly denounced the agreement as a betrayal of their cause and a “torpedoing” of an Arab-led peace initiative. The Palestinian government recalled their ambassador to Bahrain soon after the announcement.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has sought to build a unified coalition in the region against Tehran while pushing a Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that had minimal input by Palestinian leaders, who long ago said Trump’s embrace of Israel made the US an unacceptable partner in negotiations.

The announcement of the Bahrain move, on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, follows the arrival of Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in Qatar earlier in the day to jump start talks between Afghanistan’s government and the Taliban.

“The sand was loaded up with blood and now we’re going to see a lot of that sand is loaded up with peace,” Trump said, referring to the Middle East.

Trump will host Netanyahu, Bahrain’s foreign minister and a representative from the UAE next week for the signing ceremony. Friday’s announcement came with praise from Netanyahu and Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa for Trump’s “dedication to peace in the region” and the “pragmatic and unique approach he has taken to bringing the nations together.”

In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu said “this is a new era of peace” that “will lead to very large investments in the Israeli economy.”

Khalid bin Ahmed, diplomatic adviser to the king of Bahrain, said the establishment of relations with Israel “is in the interest of the region’s security, stability and prosperity.”

“It sends a positive and encouraging message to the people of Israel that a just and comprehensive peace with the Palestinian people is the best path,” bin Ahmed said in a Twitter post after the announcement.

Speculation over whether Bahrain could be next to establish ties with Israel has been building in recent weeks with White House officials repeatedly signaling other countries could follow the UAE. The move carries extra significance in Iran, which for years claimed sovereignty over Bahrain, another majority Shiite nation, said Ehud Yaari, an overseas fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Saudi signal

While Bahrain is a tiny island with the smallest economy among the six Gulf Cooperation Council members, its decision to formalize relations with Israel is certain to prompt debate over whether its larger neighbor and ally Saudi Arabia — to which it’s connected by a causeway — may have tacitly approved the deal.

Ayham Kamel, head of Middle East and North Africa at Eurasia Group, which advises clients on political risk, said Bahrain’s decision “is implicitly a signal from Riyadh that it has granted its blessing to the normalization of relations with Israel. Saudi Arabia is unable and unwilling to join normalisation without concessions to the Palestinians but is at the same time seeking a new regional order.”

The Trump administration has compared the agreements with Israel to the historic Camp David accords in 1978, when Egypt formally recognized Israel, and Jordan’s decision to establish ties with the Jewish state during the Clinton administration in the 1990s.

In a nod to that past, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi welcomed the deal, saying on Twitter that he values “this important step toward establishing stability and peace in the Middle East.”